Apple Debuts as Top 5 PC Maker in Western Europe, UK

[MacRumors]

Earlier this week, research firm Gartner reported that Apple broke into the top 5 PC manufacturers in both the United Kingdom and broader Western Europe markets for the first time in the survey's history in the first quarter of 2011. Apple's year-over-year shipment growth of 10-15% in those markets bucked the trend that saw all of the other top manufacturers see a decline in shipments, a performance that saw the overall market shrink by over 17% compared to the first quarter of 2010.

Apple made its debut among the top five vendors in Western Europe displacing Toshiba in the first quarter of 2011. Apple was the only one among the top five vendors to increase shipments, with volumes for mobile PCs growing 32 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

In the United Kingdom, Apple displaced Samsung to grab the fifth spot in unit shipments.

Article Link: Apple Debuts as Top 5 PC Maker in Western Europe, UK

 

[ericinboston]

Top 5 ain't saying much since there are, ahem, basically 5 personal computer vendors in the WORLD. Dell, HP, Apple, Asus, and Acer (as listed of course).

That's like saying Sprint is in the Top 5 cell carriers in the USA...or that Kleenex is in the Top 3 tissue companies in the USA. It's pretty much common knowledge.

At the end of the day, Apple still has 7-8% of worldwide personal computer market share...while the Wintel business model has 80%+. It's also not hard to "increase shipments" when you only have 6% market share. Everyone else (the top 4) has sold bazillions.

 

[quinnd]

It's not "Wintel" vs. Apple...

This comment so flawed in so many ways I don't know where to begin and considered not even trying but (possibly to my own detriment) could not help it...

I think that Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, and the others that make up that whopping 32.6 pct of the market would beg to differ with you that "there are basically 5 computer vendors in the world...". Furthermore, comparing Apple to the fictional "Wintel" makes about as much sense as comparing Toshiba to all the "Untoshibas". Apple does need to capture all of the market to be successful - they don't even need to capture 50% of the market or anywhere near it. In fact, since their margins are so much higher than their competitors, capturing "only" 6% of the market also means that they capture closer to 15% to 20% of the profits in the industry (I may be off a bit there but, if so, it's on the low end). The same goes for smartphones where they make something like 60% of the profits in that market.

Lastly, to your last point it's VERY hard to increase shipments by 10% when the rest of the industry is decreasing by 15.7% - this is showing a fundamental shift away from "Wintel" and won't just benefit Apple but also Android and potentially ChromeOS at some point down the road. Since more of what consumers are using a computer for these days does not require Windows (and in may cases any specific software application) accessing the web is enough and the OS is not as critical. Apple is benefiting because of the ecosystem with iPod, iPhone, Retail stores and customers who just like the Mac OS interface, IMO (or Apple's products, Apple as a company, etc.). This benefit is also starting to extend to Google and makers of Android devices.

The real loser in all of this is Microsoft who is being cut out of the picture

Top 5 ain't saying much since there are, ahem, basically 5 personal computer vendors in the WORLD. Dell, HP, Apple, Asus, and Acer (as listed of course).

That's like saying Sprint is in the Top 5 cell carriers in the USA...or that Kleenex is in the Top 3 tissue companies in the USA. It's pretty much common knowledge.

At the end of the day, Apple still has 7-8% of worldwide personal computer market share...while the Wintel business model has 80%+. It's also not hard to "increase shipments" when you only have 6% market share. Everyone else (the top 4) has sold bazillions.

 

[rdowns]

Mac news relegated to the blog and an eBay sale on an Apple prototype gets page 1.

 

[gnasher729]

At the end of the day, Apple still has 7-8% of worldwide personal computer market share...while the Wintel business model has 80%+. It's also not hard to "increase shipments" when you only have 6% market share. Everyone else (the top 4) has sold bazillions.

That's unit sales. One £200 netbook = 1 sale. One £3,000 Mac Pro = 1 sale.

We never see numbers for hardware revenue, and we don't see numbers for profits either. In the smartphone market, Apple has a similar small share in unit sales, but takes 60% of the total profit in that market.

 

[ericinboston]

@gnasher and quinnd:

I never said Apple was not profitable...they are EXTREMELY profitable...as anyone who has been alive the past 10 years can tell you.

Selling QUANTITY is not the same a PROFIT.

Market share is simply "who sells the most units" or otherwise labeled "what percentage of customers use Brand X vs Brand Y"...and it's been obvious for 25+ years that Apple is clearly nowhere near a)Wintel or b)serious Top 5 Wintel players (until now).

I think you both misunderstood my post.

Lastly, my comment about BASICALLY there are 5 top PC manufacturers in the world...I stand by it. BASICALLY there are 5 that have any meat to them. Sure, maybe at times there is a 6th or a 7th...but you (quinnd) are making it sound like there are 30 top contenders. There are not. There may actually be 30 or 300 or 3000 vendors out there, but overall Top 5 are what count (especially when you see the market share for #1 (HP) at 23.4% and the #5 spot quickly drops all the way down to 6.8%.

Once you get out of the top 5 or 6, you are basically splitting hairs in that Company 5 has 3% market share while Company 6 has 2.8% and Company 7 has 2.3% etc. Again, that's why there is basically a Top 5.

 

[PlipPlop]

Wow HP dominate. Love HP products myself.

 

[OllyW]

Mac news relegated to the blog and an eBay sale on an Apple prototype gets page 1.

Welcome to the so called Post-PC world.

 

[Gasu E.]

@gnasher and quinnd:

I never said Apple was not profitable...they are EXTREMELY profitable...as anyone who has been alive the past 10 years can tell you.

Selling QUANTITY is not the same a PROFIT.

Market share is simply "who sells the most units" or otherwise labeled "what percentage of customers use Brand X vs Brand Y"...and it's been obvious for 25+ years that Apple is clearly nowhere near a)Wintel or b)serious Top 5 Wintel players (until now).

I think you both misunderstood my post.

Lastly, my comment about BASICALLY there are 5 top PC manufacturers in the world...I stand by it. BASICALLY there are 5 that have any meat to them. Sure, maybe at times there is a 6th or a 7th...but you (quinnd) are making it sound like there are 30 top contenders. There are not. There may actually be 30 or 300 or 3000 vendors out there, but overall Top 5 are what count (especially when you see the market share for #1 (HP) at 23.4% and the #5 spot quickly drops all the way down to 6.8%.

Once you get out of the top 5 or 6, you are basically splitting hairs in that Company 5 has 3% market share while Company 6 has 2.8% and Company 7 has 2.3% etc. Again, that's why there is basically a Top 5.

The chart is showing a "top 5" solely because Gartner only shows the top 5 in any industry breakdown that they make publicly available. The number "5" is arbitrary. The chart is showing Apple at 6.6% and "Others" at 32.6% .You can't tell from the information Gartner provides whether #6 is at 6.5% or 2.3%. Looking at the chart, it seems to me one could have also concluded there is a "top 3" and a bunch of Others which includes Apple.

 

[Gasu E.]

Lastly, to your last point it's VERY hard to increase shipments by 10% when the rest of the industry is decreasing by 15.7% - this is showing a fundamental shift away from "Wintel" and won't just benefit Apple but also Android and potentially ChromeOS at some point down the road. Since more of what consumers are using a computer for these days does not require Windows (and in may cases any specific software application) accessing the web is enough and the OS is not as critical. Apple is benefiting because of the ecosystem with iPod, iPhone, Retail stores and customers who just like the Mac OS interface, IMO (or Apple's products, Apple as a company, etc.). This benefit is also starting to extend to Google and makers of Android devices.

The real loser in all of this is Microsoft who is being cut out of the picture

Let me say I basically agree with your post. I do want to add another trend that I think benefits Apple market share, which is that I see corporations moving away from company-managed PCs entirely. The trend that I am observing is toward virtual desktops where PC power is needed and tablets where it is not. PCs are just too expensive to own and operate. My own corporation is moving strongly in this direction; an interesting thing is that, since virtual desktops can run anywhere, we are seeing a lot more tolerance, perhaps even encouragement, toward (employee-owned) Macs in what used to be a 100% Wintel environment. My company is itself a top 10 IT vendor, although relatively conservative in its internal IT practices, so we are perhaps a good harbinger of where the corporate IT world is going.

Virtual desktop technology is currently not as well suited to non-corporate use, so I don't see the same trend outside the corporate space at this time. So I think a vendor such as Apple, which is disproportionally weak inside the corporate space, is not going to be hurt by this particular trend anywhere as badly as the Dells of the world. Personally I think Dell, in particular, will not exist as an independent entity as early as 2015.